ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries


January 1986 /  17

members, responding to a n u m b er of items on the
Library’s holdings, felt th a t th e critical mass of m a ­
terials in the general circulating collection needed

 to support th eir area of th e curriculum  was not yet 
av ailab le a n d  needed to be given first p rio rity  
above all other needs in any area of th e LRC.

The Tufts/EDUCOM data-sharing project 
for library statistics

By John A. D u n n  Jr.

Vice-President, Planning 
Tufts University

The Tufts University d ata-sh arin g  project sup­
ports college and university p lan n in g  and m an ag e­
ment by facilitating self-assessment an d  co m p ari­
sons w ith  p e e rs , u s in g  c o m p u te r - s u p p o r t e d  
data-aggregation an d  analysis techniques. A p ri­
mary advantage of th e d atab ase approach to li­
brary statistics is th a t it gives th e user access to d a ta  
on a more cu rren t basis th a n  is generally possible 
with paper surveys.

The project has th ree com ponents: E D U C O M ’s 
Higher E ducation D ata-S h arin g  Service (HEDS) 
software; sets of definitions an d  ratios (d ata p ro ­
files) developed by Tufts U niversity w ith  th e guid­
ance of the m em bers; an d  collections of d a ta  con­
trib u ted  by th e  m e m b e r schools. T h e  H E D S  
software and th e d atab ase reside on an IBM m a in ­
frame at C ornell University.

The set of d a ta  to be collected is based on d a ta  
already b e in g  c o lle c te d  by A R L , A C R L , a n d  
LIBGIS, as well as by A rth u r Monke at Bowdoin 
for his college survey. It also goes beyond those and 
beyond th e ARL supplem entary questionnaire in 
the area of au to m atio n , and is m ore inclusive of 
other indicators of institutional size an d  ch aracter. 
The softw are allows th e com puter on w hich the 
database resides to perform  th e ratio  calculations 
for the user, so th a t th e o u tp u t includes ratios and 
trend indicators as well as raw  d ata.

Each user collects d a ta  for his or her ow n institu ­
tion following th e profile descriptions, an d  enters 
them using T elenet, TY M NET, B IT N E T  or other 
data com m unications netw orks. T he user can then 
obtain:

•  time-series d a ta  for his or her ow n institution, 
and for any other p a rtic ip a n t, including differ­
ences betw een those sets of d a ta  in absolute or p e r­
centage term s;

•  d ata for any given year for all institutions or 
for the set of schools specified (access to peer group 
data is by consent of th e  m em bers);

•  statistical m easures on each variable, for all in ­
stitutions or for th e set selected, as well as several 
types of graphic displays of th e d ata.

The user can en ter an d  p rin t out th e d a ta  in

“p u re tim e-sharing” m ode using an o rd in ary  te rm i­
nal or m odem . A lternatively, in “m icrocom puter- 
to -m ain fram e” m ode, th e user can em ploy sp read ­
sheet softw are (e.g., LOTUS 1-2-3), to en ter or 
extract d a ta  by file transfer, using th e m icrocom ­
p u te r for fu rth e r local analysis and graphics.

T he areas of d a ta  collection and analysis include 
financial statistics such as o perating incomes and 
expenses, endow m ents, p riv ate support, an d  b a l­
ance sheet changes; statistics on u n d e rg rad u ate a d ­
missions, enrollm ents (by level and by degree p ro ­
g r a m ) , s tu d e n t c h a rg e s  a n d  f i n a n c ia l a id ; 
institutional d a ta  in such areas as personnel an d  fa ­
cilities; sponsored research; libraries an d  faculty 
dem ographics. A profile on faculty com pensation 
is in p re p a ra tio n . Profiles include both th e base in ­
p u t d a ta  an d  a w ide variety of com puted ratios, 
grow th rates, an d  com parisons to n atio n al statis­
tics.

C u rre n t un iv ersity  p a rtic ip a n ts  are  B randeis, 
Carnegie-M ellon, C ornell, E m ory, G eorgetow n, 
NYU, Pennsylvania, Rochester, Southern M ethod­
ist, T u fts, T u la n e , V a n d e rb ilt an d  W ash in g to n  
University. College m em bers are A m herst, Bates, 
B o w d o in , B ry n  M a w r, B u c k n e ll, C a r l e to n , 
C larem ont-M cK enna, C lark, C olgate, C olorado, 
D ic k in so n , F r a n k lin  a n d  M a rs h a ll, G r in n e ll, 
H am ilto n , H averford, K alam azoo, Kenyon, L a ­
fa y e tte , L a w re n c e , L e h ig h , L ew is a n d  C la rk , 
M iddlebury, Mills, M ount Holyoke, O berlin, Po­
m ona, Reed, Scripps, Sm ith, St. Jo h n ’s (A nnapo­
lis), St. L aw rence, S w arthm ore, T rin ity  College, 
T rin ity  U n iv e rsity , U n io n , V assar, W ellesley, 
W esleyan, W h eato n , an d  W illiam s. Several other 
colleges an d  universities are considering joining.

P articip atio n  w ith in  th e tw o user groups is vol­
u n tary . O nly a few libraries now  have d a ta  in the 
system, b u t m ore have indicated a willingness to 
join actively.

F u tu re  directions include expanding and fu rth e r 
refining th e areas of d a ta  collection.

Interested lib rarian s m ay contact m e at (617) 
381-3274 to find o u t how  to p a rtic ip a te  most effec­
tively. ■ ■